and his new boss told him two things -- cook what you love, and save your money. joe doesn't ow it yet, but he'll work his way up from busser to waiter to chef bere opening a restaurant specializing in fish and game from t great norwest. he'll start investing early, he'll find se good people to help guide him, and he'll set money aside from his first day of work to his last, which isn't rocket science. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade. liz: countdown to the countdown. full speed ahead for costco as it nears all-time highs, but is the bargain store a bargain stock? a bull and bear battle it out in our street fight. can harvey weinstein's wife save jc penney? working to turn the company around, but will it be enough to

make the stock fashionable again? and the fed about to release bank stress test results. why the tests might become a compliance nightmare for the bank stocks. countdown starts right now. liz: good afternoon everybody. i'm liz claman. it is the last hour of trading. the dow is just continuing to be on a roll, hitting yet another record high. now, that's the third day in a row. we're off the best levels of the session. why? well, investors may be taking some money off the table ahead of the february jobs report. that's due out tomorrow, 8:30 a.m. eastern. but good news on the jobs front today led to some early buying. we got weekly first time jobless claims, the unemployment benefits for the week, falling to six-week low, so right now absent any really bad news, the markets continue their march higher. but it is the nasdaq that you see up 7 points. it was down earlier, struggling,

but not today. managed to punch to the upside. the s&p better by 2 3/4 points. and the dow jones industrials once again up 34. listen, up 1 point and it's yet another record, but it is treasuries that have sold off on that data. yields up. treasuries are down four days in a row. that is the longest losing streak since january. let's take a look at currencies because we have seen a pretty significant move in the euro. up more than a full cent against the dollar at 131.05. the european central bank this morning held interest rates steady at their policy meeting today. the ecb president also suggested probably won't cut rates any time soon and that of course was bullish for the euro, slightly bearish for the dollar. because of that, look at oil. oil getting a bounce today, denominated in dollars. when the dollar weakens against the euro, crude futures move higher by about 1.03. newspapers can keep running the

same headline, the dow sets another record, but i wanted to ask our traders what headline would they rather see? let's get to the floor show. traders at the new york stock exchange, cme group and the nymex. john, you get to play newspaper editor. what would you absolutely love to see on the front page as it pertains to the markets? >> i just want to see a headline that can explain to us how and get all the economic data that all links together. we continually get conflicting economic data that comes out of washington, and it puts investors intentions of getting back in this market, keeps them on the side lines here. yes, this morning jobs numbers, the initial claims and are occurring claims -- reoccurring claims better. let's see if we can link that to the unemployment number tomorrow. past months we have seen a disconnect in those numbers where leading up to the unemployment number you get the false reports that come out of washington that you think the unemployment number is going to get better. when the big number comes, it is disconnected from the leading up numbers. so i would like clear numbers coming out of washington that

all can be linked together that can support this rally in the market. i'm asking for a lot, liz. liz: keep dreaming. [laughter] liz: larry, what about you? would you love to finally see a break through and see a headline that the s&p 500 is up to a five year high? >> i would like to get that out of the way because it's something we're going to talk about until that happens and i don't think it's too far away. the trend is on upward and moving higher, and i think that s&p high is probably within, you know, three or four days at the very most, i think we will be there fairly soon. liz: what would be the catalyst there? that's assuming we get a decent jobs number tomorrow and the stress tests coming out after the bell are going to look decent? >> yes, continued good information or more backstopping of the government and that's certainly going to keep pushing the markets higher. i think you will probably get that. liz: ah, yes, the fed. jonathan i'm looking at the

nymex. to see a jump of about a dollar, some would say what's going on? is this just a stronger dollar that's -- rather, a weaker dollar that's affecting what's happening there? >> i think it is a weaker dollar to a certain extent. but you know what? we've moved over the 100 day moving average. we had a lot of support at $90. and option volatility has continued to come in, so there's a lot of indication that crude oil should kind of be moving higher now. the unemployment claims today helped push us higher to begin with to start the day. and i think if we can get a decent number tomorrow, barring any negative surprises, that we could probably continue pushing higher over the next few days, maybe get back and test $95. liz: i'm looking at rbob gasoline just down slightly, but at $3.12. again, that's the wholesale price. we all know we're paying more than that. where does that price go in the future, the near future? >> the near future, i think as we start to get towards the summer driving season and more economic news comes out to be on the slightly bullish side, that will probably help push rbob

higher as well. i can just say the news headline i would like to see would be bipartisanship in washington. liz: listen, wouldn't that be nice? i think honestly that that is what a lot of america would like to see. john, i'm looking at the -- let's see, the xle, which is the spidr energy. is there a good trade? you know, the energy stocks looking as they have for the start of the year, right now that etf is moving higher. so i just wonder if that's a trade that continues or is it held hostage -- these individual names held hostage to the headlines out or the dollar movement? >> i don't think so. i think that trade is still there. and also if you look like in the financial sector too, those two sectors have been hot named topics that have been out there, whether it's investor money coming in or whether it's laws coming out of washington, those headlines have been hot. so i think investors have kind of sled to that sector there especially how easy it is to get baskets of stocks in those

sectors through the individual etf. liz: yeah, it's so interesting to watch as we start to at least find a firmer footing when it comes to the economy and see what that really does. thank you very much, gentlemen. good to see you all. any time on the floor show, you are always welcome. if the markets look better, most likely your 401(k)s, your portfolios look better, so will you all still be hitting the big box discount stores? costco came out with some information saying its february same-store sales rose 6%. the street had them looking for an increase of just under 5%. but battling it tooth and nail, wal-mart. wal-mart did cite weakness in february when it posted fourth quarter results. so if you had to pick one of the two to own, should it be costco which right now is moving slightly lower on the tape? it's time for a street fight in the bulls corner as we roll our bull bear animation. morningstar equity analyst. and for the bears nbg chief equity analyst. good to see you both.

michael, costco is one of your favorite names. tell us right off the bat why. >> hi, liz. well over the long-term, basically they are the price leader on products that consumers need, that's food and fuel. as long as they are going to be the price leader on that, they are going to drive consistent market share gains over the long-term. and over the near term, simply they are going -- -- the payroll tax is probably not going to affect their customer base as much as say the wal-mart customer. liz: you just threw that out there. i want to pinpoint you on that. they do take amex, that's one of the very few ways you can pay at costco. does that mean they are aiming for the higher amex sort of profile client? >> yeah, their customer base has always been a bit higher end. if you look at say wal-mart about 25% of their consumers are on snap, which is food stamps, essentially. you look at the dollar store, over 40%. and so we would rather be positioned in that consumer

space than say in a wal-mart or in a dollar store right now. liz: brian, costco had better than expected february sales, so why the bear? >> i'm calling reality check. for as long as i have been in this business, everybody loves costco. the fact of the matter is it is a low single digit business. actually cannibalizing themselves, which hurts their sales and margins. increasing gasoline sales over the past couple of months hurts their margins as well. also in fact they are not as strong as they should be on-line. put all these pieces together. one final fact, this company remains one of the worst in allocating cash to their shareholders. throughout the past couple of weeks everybody giving money away to their shareholders. costco likes to sit on it. liz: they have a 1% dividend yield. michael, do the membership fees bother you? apparently they don't. brian, i assume they do. >> if you are going to go up against target or wal-mart who basically give you consumer

products at 7 or 8 percent margin, as these two businesses clash at 3 1/2% or 3% margin business is going to be the market share winner. in terms of dividend, in terms of returning shares back to shareholders, they did a special one time dividend not too long ago. but again, i'm a fundamental analyst. i look at cash flow generation. if you look at year over year increases in operating profits these guys actually generate increases in operating profits versus some of the other names who have been flat to down. those other names have been driving earnings with share repurchases. from a cash flow perspective, these guys are generating a lot of cash. liz: yeah, brian, i mean, that plus people pay to shop at costco. they have the membership fee. what do you say to that? >> first of all, 19% of their balance sheet is in fact -- total assets are on cash, that's all fine and good. they are starting to price their products more competitively. if we're having this discussion on high end consumers why not look at starbucks. i think you will get a couple points there.

look at gnc taking share in their gold star program. those are the growth names you want to look at. not something like a costco which is a company that's not growing that much that is valued as a growth name. it is a fake growth company. liz: whoa, i mean, michael -- i have been to costco. i really like it because i like that they have names higher end make-up line but then they have their own costco side to it. they have great chocolate covered raisins, which is priority for some of us. brian makes a point. he makes a point that if things are looking the way they are, you could actually go to a wal-mart and maybe get a better -- it depends, better deal, but then does costco really offer what some people want when they walk into a big box retailer? when you go into a target, you get those designers that have been hooked in. >> target does a good job on designers, but sometimes they miss. it doesn't really play out that well. but i look at it from an investor point of view. and i don't like volatility. and these guys book their

profits 12 months in advance. that's why you see sort of a higher multiple for a costco versus some other retailers. liz: multiple of 20, p-e about 20, a little bit richer than some of its competitors. >> right, but they are going to grow into that. you pay for the visibility. they block their profits in 12 months in advance. consumers aren't stupid, you have to understand. people pay to shop at costco. and they do that for a reason. they get the best value on whatever product they are looking for. liz: brian? >> again, this thing is valued 21 times earnings, normally it is about 22 times earnings. if you want to play the high end consumer, look at companies that are going to reward their shareholders with something better than 10% earnings growth which i think you will get from costco over the next probably year and a half. liz: it is a street fight. thank you, michael and brian. good to see you both. thank you very much. >> thank you. liz: talking about costco which is down slightly, unlike the market, which is up 35 points for the dow jones industrials, closing bell ringing in about 50

minutes. stressing over the stress tests, in less than an hour and a half, we will know which of the u.s.'s 18 biggest financial institutions passed or failed the fed's version of the s.a.t.s, but after that, will banks be forced because the fed has made a slightly strange request to leak their dividend and buyback plans and what will that do to shares? will it make them gyrate? a top securities law professor at columbia university is a little worried about that. he will explain why. and maybe when you know, it may make a change in your decision on what to have in your portfolio. he's next in a fox business exclusive. investor. yeah, i'm a serious investor

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liz: investors are driving shares of navistar higher again today. let's head over to nicole petallides on the floor of the new york stock exchange. nicole? nicole: they are loving what's going on with navistar now. and now a new ceo in place for navistar. the truck and engine maker. we are seeing the stock jumping. clark will be taking over the helm. he's been working very closely with the interim ceo lewis campbell. he came out of retirement when

the ceo of navistar was fired back last august. troy clark actually spent many years over at gm, about 35 years, but he's been as i noted working as the chief operating officer along with the interim ceo in order to turn things around for navistar. in that time, they reported a narrower quarterly loss. they improved the cash and the balance sheet. so that was good news there. and so now he finally takes over the helm for real, and investors are loving it. up almost 25%. back to you. liz: thank you. financials are leading the markets this week and today the entire sector is hitting a 52 week high. and over the past year, they have been on fire. as you know, they were winners in 2012. they are already looking very good this year. the s&p xlf spidr up about 23%. -- spdr up about 23%. kbw up 24%.

here's what investors are concerned about today: the fed came out with the two step approach saying first you get to release -- we will let you know that you passed. second, you tell us what you want to do with your dividends and with your share buybacks. but you can't announce that until a week later. a little strange. and it may create some headaches for bank executives analysts and you the shareholder. we thought we would bring in john coffee, columbia university law school professor joining us from new york in a fox business exclusive. let's get right to it, professor. thank you for being here. >> sure. liz: in less than an hour and a half, we are going to get these stress test results. and the fed had this suggestion, it's not an order, but it was a suggestion that yes, you guys will find out whether you passed or failed, but now you have to wait until you let the world and the shareholders know what you want to do with the capital you have, as far as giving it back. why is that a problem? why are you worried? >> well, they are separating the good news from the bad news. it's widely predicted by many analysts today that these major

18 banks will pass the stress test. liz: all of them? >> last time four did not pass and those four are the ones that may have the greatest volatility because even if you pass the test, it does not follow that the fed will approve your projected dividend payouts and buybacks. that's where the uncertainty is. this good news to really benefit investors, the banks have to be able to increase their payouts, which in the case of a citi corp., been very very low, at 0.1%. however, the fed may well say in the case of some of the weaker bankers, citi corp. or a bank of america that we want you to accumulate more capital even though you passed the test and we don't yet want you to increase your dividend payouts. that's where there's uncertainty. i think there's little doubt that a jpmorgan or a wells fargo are strong and will be permitted to increase their payout. but there's more uncertainty about those banks that didn't do well last time. liz: let me pinpoint this here. if citigroup passes, and we've

got to figure they don't make the same mistake twice, because they failed the last time, but then they say could you not say we failed just say we didn't pass, whatever. i mean, that was a little bizarre last time around. but would you expect that their shares gyrate because people are beginning to wonder what they will do about that? as you mentioned, very appropriately, they want to see a better dividend from citi, and who else would follow that same rock and roll path when it comes to the shares in the short-term? >> well, of course there will be volatility and also there may be negotiations. the fed can hint. there can be body language telling a major bank what the fed is happy with in the way of a projected dividend increase, and that's why they may want this separation so they have more time to try to influence and negotiate the banks' policies. liz: do you expect leaks or is that a really dumb question, there will be leaks? >> i would suspect there will be reports. there will be projections. what analyst wouldn't make a bet on this area.

but if you hear that they all pass, i think analysts are still not going to be certain whether the weaker ones, the citicorp.s, in particular, are going to be able to make a significant increase. some perhaps, but a significant increase, that's a very open question. liz: four that didn't pass, they were ally financial, sun trust, citigroup and met life. can i get your perspective? do you think those four have fixed their situations, fixed their balance sheets and will get it right this time? >> met life is no longer in the group. it sold off its bank. it's no longer covered. that was its response to this problem. the others i can't tell you i know anything about several of them. i would suspect that citigroup has worked very hard to try to get itself in a position where it can increase at least somewhat its dividend payout. liz: while i have you, professor, there is still a lot of question about dodd frank, about the volcker rule, about whether too big to fail has indeed been eliminated, and on top of that -- meaning taxpayer bailouts if something happens.

and they say absolutely. the too big to fail has been eliminated, but i just wonder if a jpmorgan and there's no reason to believe it would get into trouble but we saw what happened back in april, a year ago, the london whale, if jpmorgan found itself in trouble, you're telling me the treasury secretary in 24 hours would break up that bank? >> no, i don't think you can, resolution authority which is what you were referring to is very difficult to trigger, and i don't think it's going to be that feasible. on the other hand, the federal reserve is restricted. it's old powers by which it could bail out that bank no longer exist, they were taken away. federal reserve can only provide support based on very good collateral. so we're caught in a world where bailouts may not be permitted, but no other rescue is, and there's still a real danger of potential contagion, because if you can't be bailed out, the failure of one starts a wall of falling dominoes. liz: are some of our banks still

too big? >> i think that's a very decent question. my problem is even if you made them smaller they would still be too interconnected and too risk correlated so that the failure of one would trigger them all. liz: i think you are right. john coffee, wonderful to see you. thank you. >> okay. liz: professor john coffee of columbia university, a law school professor. closing bell ringing in 36 minutes. trading wars are heating up in the new york stock exchange, kind of losing the battle for buy and sell orders. charlie gasparino on who is winning. he's burning up the blackberry as he heads to the studio with all the latest developments, as he passes the big photographs of all of the talent here.

liz: six years ago people weren't even talking about these things, but it is official, the dreaded dark pools as they are known are now beating the new york stock exchange in the war over trading volume. charlie gasparino has the exclusive details. first explain to people what that means. >> a dark pool is essentially an exchange -- i think it was passed back in 05, 04, sec rule says that, you know, you can trade -- you don't have to send your orders your trading orders like merrill lynch doesn't have to sell all its buys and sells to the new york stock exchange, where you can match, where you did in the past, now you can send it to other places. those other places nobody really knows. they don't publish prices. they are known as dark pools. they are nontransparent. that's what's going on now. for the first time we are getting this from the new york stock exchange the dark pools in january combined all the dark pools and we will show you a chart of the top three in a few seconds, all of them combined now are doing more average daily

trading volume, at least in january, and it's probably going to be in february, than the new york stock exchange. 900 million shares at the new york stock exchange. versus 920 at the dark pools. those are the three largest dark pools. here's the positive stories about this. barclays, which is like just laying people off, you know, imploding their investment bank, amid, you know, the libor and everything else. they actually recently beat goldman sachs, they have a bigger dark pool than goldman sachs. that came in january. rosenblatt securities is providing some of these numbers. this is really interesting the dark pools are now beating the new york stock exchange in terms of average daily trading volume. we're waiting to get it from the nasdaq. i would assume they are beating the nasdaq as well. remember what an exchange does, it matches a buyer and seller of stock. if you are merrill lynch, you send your order flows -- liz: why would i go through barclays versus the new york stock exchange? >> well, it depends on who you are. if you are you, you are going to

the new york stock exchange, and you're getting whatever price they print. but if you're a big institution investor, you don't want anybody to know you're trading. so guess what? you send it to credit suisse and guess what? who knows what price they are charging. maybe it is better than what we're getting because not everybody -- it's not sent to one place. this is the problem with the competitiveness of this market. yes, there is a competitive market. there is exchanges -- dark pools are on exchange, they are competing against -- with the new york stock exchange and the nasdaq. the problem is, they are not regulated the same. the new york stock exchange and nasdaq publish prices. where is the goldman sachs dark pool price for apple? where's the credit suisse? they are the number one. we don't know. and that, you know -- let's face it, that means there's lack of transparency in the markets. i will say that, when you have this sort of dis-intermediation away from the major exchanges, it is easier to have a flash crash because who knows what the real price is. liz: that is the concern, i think because people really don't know -- these are

established names, credit suisse, goldman sachs, there are some outfits out in the midwest, kansas i heard there's a gigantic one out there. if you add an a, does that make it scary? dark pool? >> dark pool. here's the reality of this thing from a regulatory standpoint, mary shapiro, i think it is a huge failing, i would love to get her on and ask about this, she would say she probably needed congressional -- liz: she was trying. >> i don't think she was trying that hard. liz: christopher cox didn't even know what they were. >> you know, everybody attacks christopher cox. i will say this, i'm doing this book on insider trading, everybody thinks it is these guys that are catching all the crooks. that investigation was started largely under chris cox, just so you know, when you start

pointing fingers, he did it for two years before it became public. that was his investigation. remember that -- liz: do you think eventually though the dark pools will be pinpointed by congress or whoever to say wait a minute, this is getting a little too big and unwielding? >> remember, the firms themselves are big lobbyists; right? remember all the firms like the dark pools, goldman, they are out lobbying. i can tell you that niederauer, the ceo of the new york stock exchange, and greifeld and ceo of nasdaq, the first time they ever agreed on anything was how much they hate the dark pools. they went and had a meeting with mary shapiro. i hear from duncan's people that he plans, you know, something coming up. he's like back to the drawing board. he wants to do something. liz: is that because these guys are kicking them and making more money? >> yes, look, these january numbers -- liz: is that why the i.c.e. wants to maybe --

>> . liz: charlie gasparino, firing up the blackberry, thank you very much. >> yes. liz: 26 minutes before the closing bell rings, the midwest is getting hammered with snow this week. does it surprise you when i tell you that 36 states may be facing water shortages this year? one company working to profit from that problem. global water technology company, the ceo and president is joining us next in a fox business exclusive.

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with investment information, risks, fees and expenses to read and consider carefully before investing. sandra: good afternoon i'm sandra smith with your fox business brief. another bullish day on wall street with blue chips hitting intraday high for a third straight session as jobless claims fall to a six week low. the dow is up 35 points. the s&p and nasdaq also higher. in a unanimous decision, the sec proposing new rules requiring exchanges and clearing firms to be better prepared to handle major market disruptions. the proposal is in response to several high-profile technology glitches from last year, including the botched handling of facebook's ipo from nasdaq omx group and knight capital's 440 million dollars trading loss. and consumer credit in january posting its largest monthly increase in five months. according to the federal reserve, total consumer credit climbing 16.2 billion dollars from december.

january's gain was led by nonrevolving debt like personal and student loans which jumped 10%. and now we continue our countdown to the closing bell with liz claman. liz: there's green in blue, but is there enough blue to go around? we're talking about water and money, with all this white, you would never guess 36 states could face water shortages this year alone. joining me now in a fox business exclusive is xylem ceo and president gretchen mcclaine. it is a water technology company that's pretty much global. you are in many different countries; correct? >> we serve over 150 countries. liz: what do you do for them? >> we are a world global water applications expert, so we bring equipment, whether it is traps porting -- transporting water, treating water. liz: you don't have to sell me on water shortages. i'm from california, l.a. even worse because in northern california don't touch our water

down in los angeles. but we know there are issues. 36 different states are going to have drought conditions and water shortages, and yet it's a tough business because you're dealing with municipalities. you're dealing with states, with infrastructure that is usually paid for by federal or state funds, of which there is not a lot these days. how do you battle that? >> well, a couple of things, we have been in the industry for over a hundred years. many of our brands, 150 years, well known. we have a wonderful base, both in the u.s. and europe. those products after they come to the end of their life cycle get replaced with the loyalty of the brands that are well known. we are paying more and more each year for water tariffs. there is a demand ultimately to repair the infrastructure we have. think about emerging markets. emerging markets today don't have the infrastructure we have today. growing economies if they want growing economies in the future, they have to have safe water for their businesses as well as their health for their people. liz: not that europe is an emerging market, but you have

business in europe. that really hurt some of your earnings last year. you know, pretty much sluggish throughout the whole year. and now you are coming out with 2013 estimates. the first half doesn't look that great. what's going on? >> well, again, you have an economy that has been challenged. and we saw second half of last year slow down, not what we thought and anticipated. and so orders are obviously impacting the first part of this next year, coming in 2013. but i still look at the fundamental demands on water. they need to be addressed. our aftermarket position allows us to go in and i will give you an example. we will go into a public utility. we will help them do an audit. we can actually help them reduce their energy efficiency and bring their cost of ownership down, so they actually then can go do more expansion and capital deployment. so if you look at the operational part of it, the aftermarket is very profitable, it's expanding and in the emerging markets as well. it is a challenged market right now. the other area is industrial. we are moving much more in industrial.

if you think about water as a critical issue, many c suites have sustainability leaders that are always thinking about how do they make sure they have the water, using water for the products they are producing -- liz: well, they should be. folks, this is something that's going to run out of business. looking at the breakdown here, close to 45% of your business, your sales come from public utility business. you know, during the state of the union address, the president talked about infrastructure and spending that money, didn't mention water infrastructure. >> water, you think about it. it's for our health, but more importantly if you want a growing economy, you absolutely have to have a robust water system. that's critically important. all of us need to be recognizing it. last year in the u.s. we had an enormous amount of drought. we have aged infrastructure. it needs to be repaired. liz: you're right. we are all right. how do we know that i'm going to see your company get the business? now your stock is up about 10% over the past year. you do have a bit of dividend here, 1.7% yield, p-e is 13. if somebody is watching and

thinking should i put xylem into my portfolio, what's the big selling point? >> energy efficiency, working with our customers that we currently have existing positions in, we're helping them run their business more efficiently. we have good technology. our new product launches are actually making a difference significant growth we saw last year. and like i said, emerging markets. it is a huge opportunity to take our experience and our expertise and continue to grow in that area. liz: everybody just conserve water, please. that's how i grew up. conserve water. gretchen, thank you very much. >> thank you. liz: we will be watching the company, ticker symbol xyl, gretchen mcclain the ceo and president of xylem, nine years at nasa, not very bright, not at all, thank you very much. [laughter] >> thank you very much, liz. >> liz: closing bell ringing in 16 minutes. a couple weeks ago we gave jc penney about what it could do to ramp up sales, hook up with some hot designers, it looks like they may have been listening to fox business. we will tell you its new plan

after the break and which designer is hoping to help their sales. we are heading down to the new york stock exchange where it looks like the dow is going to close at another record high. what are the traders saying? nicole is already talking to them and getting the scoop. she's coming up next. ♪ at a dry cleaner, we replaced people with a machine. what? customers didn't like it. so why do bankdo it? hello? hello?! if your bank doesn't let you talk to a real person 24/7, you need an ally. hello? ally bank. your money needs an ally.

liz: here's your fox business market check. shares of jc penney are up today but that cannot erase the mess over the past 52 weeks, down about 60%. and on a day that we broke that record, finally, jc penney was down significantly. i mean talk about a rough year. so a few weeks ago, here on

countdown to the closing bell, we offered jc penney a little advice. on february 28th, we and the team here at fox business countdown to the closing bell, gave jc penney some ideas including a roping in a deal with a popular designer to make fashionable clothes for a cheaper price like many competitors, kohl's target, they have already done it. like magic, they did it. we will just believe they were listening to us. jc penney launching a spring line with a powerhouse fashion designer. chapman whose stunning designs are worn on the red carpet. i'm dying for one of these dresses. will they be able to save the company? first lady michelle obama wore one for the state dinner last year.

it could very well cause a stampede of shoppers to enter the store. i don't know if you received one of these, but this came in the mail. we're all getting these even if we're not on the shopping list for jc penney. it is bringing in designers like this london based designer. have you heard about that? so all of these very colorful designs, just like target, right, bringing them in, but will that draw people into the stores to make them buy? we can only wait to find out whether chapman, who happens to be harvey weinstein's wife, the hollywood executive, the hollywood top guy. we will find out. we will be watching that. what other advice could we come up with jc penney? i asked on twitter which designer you would love to have at jc penney. here's what you said:

liz: by the way, @ roger the great wanted ralph lauren. a lot of people said izod is already there. thank you jc penney, we probably had nothing to do with it but we will try and take the credit. another day, another record high for the dow jones industrials. the s&p 500 not far behind. you heard our floor show traders saying it is just days a way that the s&p hits the five year high. we're just about 1% away from all-time highs. what are the traders saying? nicole petallides down there on the floor of the new york stock exchange with kenny. nicole: you know, you are of the same mindset of some of the traders i have been speaking with. you think we are going to get to the highs for the s&p. >> i think the market is not going to back off until they push it to the highs; right? they have to get the s&p. it's got to hit the 1564, and then you can almost feel like the market is waiting for it to

get there so it can go -- and take a deep breath; right, and a sigh of relief that it in fact made it there. nicole: i wanted to also just note that you think when i said to you how about 14,500 on the dow, you think that's attainable and you think we're going higher by the end of the year. >> listen, i think the end of the year, i think 2013 and 14 are going to be great years for back to equities. i'm hoping that part of it is almost back to an equity investing 101, right? a basic get back to reality and there's a lot of money out there that needs to come back. nicole: let's talk about the banks. >> the bank stress tests are coming up tonight. they are all expected to pass. but with that then they are expected to raise their dividends. big dividend story. especially the baby boomers are looking for part of their portfolio should be a nice, big dividend paying stocks. that's helping the whole group. nicole: that's right. obviously the baby boomers, they don't want to lose the principal. they like to make dividends, some returns on that one. what about the payrolls

tomorrow? >> payrolls will be a big number. if the number comes in better than 200, then i think you will see a lot of action. i think tomorrow you could actually then see the s&p challenged. anything less than 200, or the number expecting, 160, i think you will get kind of more churn. i don't think you will get a reaction. next week there's a ton of u.s. macro data that people will be paying attention to as they should especially now that we're in the middle of the sequester and debt ceiling so people will be very keen to listen to what these reports are going to look like. nicole: all right. we always love when you come on with us and give us some insight and so energetic about it. we appreciate that. it is exciting time in these markets obviously as we hit record all-time highs on the dow. liz: by the way, if you subscribe to kenny's note every morning, he gives an italian recipe at the bottom of it, every single time. nicole: he's given some greek ones too. >> i try to take the theme of the day. some of them are greek. some of them are french. some of them are italian.

liz: okay, all right. do not take any advice from me about cooking. okay? not happening. thank you kenny and nicole. closing bell ringing in about 5 minutes, just under 6 minutes. are the markets on fire or what? the dow is on track for its fifth straight day of gains. third record. and you guys it's on track for that third straight record. we're counting down to countdown to the closing bell. it is coming in a few minutes. you have to see this, history once again. i'm a conservative investor. but that doesn't mean i don't want to makeoney. i love making money. i try to be smart with my investments. i also try to keep my costs down. what's your plan? ishares. low cost and tax efficient. find out why nine out of ten large professional investors choose ishares for their etfs. ishares by blackrock. call 1-800-ishares for a prospectus which includes

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